Scrapping the plan to forgo nuclear power plants becomes official

The draft of the 10th Basic Plan for Long-term Electricity (BPLE), which focuses on increasing the share of nuclear power generation to 32.8 percent by 2030, has been announced. The share of renewable energy generation will be reduced by nearly 10 percentage points. Accordingly, observers say that this has formalized the abolition of the nuclear phase-out policy proposed by the former Moon Jae-in administration.

The BPLE subcommittee, composed of electric power experts, unveiled the 10th BPLE working plan at COEX, Gangnam-gu, Seoul on Tuesday. It contains electricity supply and demand forecasts between 2022 and 2036, electricity demand management, and plans for power generation, transmission and substation facilities. Based on this working plan, the government plans to complete the 10th BPLE by the end of this year and submit it to the National Assembly.

First of all, the proportion of nuclear power generation will be significantly increased in one year from 23.9 percent announced by the Moon administration at the National Determined Contribution (NDC) in October last year to 32.8 percent. The government plans to continue operating nuclear power plants whose operating licenses have expired, and to increase power generation through six new nuclear power plants, including the newly built Units 1 and 2 of the Shin Hanul nuclear power plant.

Conversely, the share of renewable energy will be greatly reduced. The subcommittee has decided to reduce the share of renewable energy generation from 30.2 percent to 21.5 percent by 2036. “The 10th BPLE reflects a feasible ‘power mix’ that balances use of nuclear and renewable energy sources,” said Yoo Seung-hoon, a professor of energy policy at Seoul National University of Science and Technology, who chaired the subcommittee.


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